Vision

Our vision for Canada is to make it an active participant in caring for our planet, in raising awareness, and in finding sustainable solutions that will encourage others to protect pollinators and their environments, not only helping to promote the growth and consumption of local produce, but also our survival. Our wish is to encourage and to be proactive in protecting bees and their habitats. We believe that we can play an active part in both informing and setting an example in a way that will benefit everyone in the short and long term, and provide us, as well as the people of tomorrow, with a safe and healthy home – our planet.

Action

We want to encourage the community of Metis Beach, and surrounding areas, to help us protect bees and their environment. We have learned about the importance of bees and dandelions and have shared this information with other classes in the school, the community (by dropping information campaign leaflets in all 455 post boxes) and the region of Rimouski (by having a large article and photograph in the newspaper l’Avantage). We have also made video capsules, shared on our school Facebook, promoting our bee campaign, particularly No Mow May. We wrote a campaign song with Rob Lutes, made bee houses in woodwork and constructed bee watering stations to stop the bees drowning when they hydrate. In the winter, we planted different vegetables and flowers in 4 litre windscreen wash bottles and put them outside in the snow. These plants will be planted in our pollinator garden, along with other wildflowers we will grow outside, near to our insect hotel. We wrote to the local town council asking them to consider leaving lawns and grass and wildflowers on the side of the roads to grow and asked the Reford Gardens to consider installing our handmade bee watering stations and bee houses. As an end of school trip, we are paying for a bus to take the whole elementary school to visit the Vieux Moulin in Ste. Luce where we will learn about bees, hives and honey production. We also made bee bookmarks for all elementary students, using the school’s 3D printer. Next year we want to continue our campaign to encourage other towns and villages to follow our example and would like to build bat houses, another species important in the food cycle. To conclude, we truly wish and intend to raise awareness and educate students and the population about the importance of bees and dandelions, how to protect them, and most of all, on changing our habits, encouraging others to not mow their lawns and seeing dandelions as a life source and not as weeds.

Reflection & Celebration

In our reflection, we wish to encourage a more positive attitude towards bees and dandelions. We believe that our efforts will influence others (students, parents, and community members) to be more aware of the importance of bees in our lives. Without bees, we would not have half of the vegetables, plants and nuts that we rely on to nourish ourselves.

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